A safety-critical system is a computer, electronic, or electromechanical system that upon failure can cause injury or loss of human life, severe environmental damage, provide a large adverse financial impact, or other similar catastrophic event. A failure of a safety-critical system includes failure of the system to perform intended functions, failure to warn the operator(s) or customer(s) of an unsafe condition, or failure to display appropriate information. For example, an aircraft control system is considered a safety critical system since the failure of the system can result in the loss of passengers and aircraft crew.
To incorporate software into safety critical systems, standards, such as the Radio Technical Committee on Aeronautics (RTCA) guidance document DO-178B, entitled “Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification”, were developed to focus on software dependence of safety-critical systems. By applying these standards during software development, safety hazards can be identified along with detecting conditions that can lead to the hazards.